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Topic: Talking to Americans (Read 4967 times)

Some of the Canadians might remember this show. It was a special that Comedian Rick Mercer aired on CBC back in 2001.

In this show, comedian Rick Mercer pokes fun at the great Canadian irritation that while Canadians know so much about the United States, Americans on the other hand, know next to nothing about Canada. In response, Rick Mercer conducts interviews in which he asks Americans, ranging from ordinary citizens to politicians, their opinion about patently ridiculous statements about Canada and records their unquestioningly ignorant responses.

So if you can take a joke, I recommend watching it.Obviously people react "differently" when a Canadian walks up to you and shoves a mic in your face. And I bet if it was reversed, Canadians would look bad too. But none the less...its pretty funny.

To stream:-Copy the URL, open Windows Media Player, File, Open URL, paste in URL and OK.

My college roomate was Canadian and we would always make fun of his 'took' (hat) and love of hockey and just give him shit in general. One day he flipped out and blew up on us and he ended his rant with"...and another thing, Our bacon is no differnt than your bacon! That stuff you call Canadian Bacon is ham!!!" *walks out and slams doorGod I miss that guy. He was a hoot.

How embarrassing for Arkansas. The governor could have at least pretended he was joking about the national igloo.

I think some of it is just because people tend to look stupid whenever someone sticks a mic in their face and asks them something they're not prepared for. Being put on the spot makes you dumb. Heck I might even congratulate Canada for the national igloo.

This has been mentioned in some other thread, but it bears repeating: Americans are just as uninformed about the US as they are about Canada. Leno does this at least once a week on the Tonight Show. It's meant to be funny, but it's just plain sad.

Trust me, there are lots of Canadians who don't know very much about Canada.I remember our local newspaper printed some of the questions that is asked of people who apply for Canadian citizenship. I think I only got 3/4's of them correct. And there were lots of us who didn't even get half of them correct.Yes, it truly is sad

Well, in defense of America, I tend to think that most of us are under such enormous social stresses involving work, kids, finances, ect. that we don't tend to find time to educate ourselves much about other countries. We're too busy trying to keep up with all stuff going on here, as it is.

Well, in defense of America, I tend to think that most of us are under such enormous social stresses involving work, kids, finances, ect. that we don't tend to find time to educate ourselves much about other countries. We're too busy trying to keep up with all stuff going on here, as it is.

I suspect much the same occurs in Canada.

And what about the rest of the world? Is this a uniquely North American phenomenon?

Honestly, it's just basic common knowledge to be able to for instance know there's a difference between Sweden and Switzerland, to mention one odd blank spot I've kept running across because of my heritage.

Actual conversation from my old job after a SwissAir flight had crashed the day before:

A: Hey, did you know anyone on that plane?

B: (joins in, interested and concerned) Yeah, I heard about that.

Me: No, that was a Swissair flight, from Switzerland. I'm from Sweden.

A: (nonplussed) Oh.

B: (loses interest) Okay.

A & B wander off.

The worst part is not that they didnt know; I mean, we all have gaps in our knowledge base. The worst part was that they didn't care and really weren't particularly embarrassed by their error.

I suspect it has more to do with other things than stresses that are shared by the inhabitants of every other Western nation, part of it being the fact that the US is practically its own continent, with most parts of the nation being quite far removed from...well, everywhere else.

Another part is the ingrained belief in the innate superiority of the US itself. I've never lived in any nation where patriotism is that inculcated in people from day one - it's something that I have mixed feelings about as a whole, but it definitely makes it easier to ignore the rest of the world.

And last but not least, the focus of news in the US is almost always local with precious little attention being paid to anything else - even other parts of the USA. Now, this may be a case of giving people what they want, but it certainly doesn't make it particularly easy for anyone who might potentially be interested in what's going on in Europe, Asia or even in Hawaii.

I guess when you have states the size of 3 European countries, it feels like there's so much to keep up with that the rest of the world just isn't our problem. Can't speak for the rest of North America, but there is something in the U.S. mindset that tells us all, "If it doesn't affect the U.S., shove it into a dark corner of your mind and move on!" Oh sure, when TRAGEDY strikes, we're all over that up here, but the day to day concerns of other countries has such a small impact on our lives as citizens of the U.S., we just don't feel the need to keep up, I guess. Maybe it's because we don't do a lot of international traveling, nor do we plan to very often. (It's expensive business flying to another continent.) I guess when you have an ocean on either side, the rest of the world feels very far away. :^)

I generally feel that local news is much more important that international news. You should be concerened with what is happening around you so you can change it.

But if we as a country are going to take it upon ourself to be the "world police" then it should also be our responsibility as citizens to know about other countries so we know what the heck we are policing. I, however, don't agree with this whole 'world police' stance, and therefor don't really pay attention to the news in other countries. Though I also don't pretend to know more than I do.

Well, in defense of America, I tend to think that most of us are under such enormous social stresses involving work, kids, finances, ect. that we don't tend to find time to educate ourselves much about other countries. We're too busy trying to keep up with all stuff going on here, as it is.

I suspect much the same occurs in Canada.

And what about the rest of the world? Is this a uniquely North American phenomenon?

Honestly, it's just basic common knowledge to be able to for instance know there's a difference between Sweden and Switzerland, to mention one odd blank spot I've kept running across because of my heritage.

Actual conversation from my old job after a SwissAir flight had crashed the day before:

A: Hey, did you know anyone on that plane?

B: (joins in, interested and concerned) Yeah, I heard about that.

Me: No, that was a Swissair flight, from Switzerland. I'm from Sweden.

A: (nonplussed) Oh.

B: (loses interest) Okay.

A & B wander off.

The worst part is not that they didnt know; I mean, we all have gaps in our knowledge base. The worst part was that they didn't care and really weren't particularly embarrassed by their error.

I suspect it has more to do with other things than stresses that are shared by the inhabitants of every other Western nation, part of it being the fact that the US is practically its own continent, with most parts of the nation being quite far removed from...well, everywhere else.

Another part is the ingrained belief in the innate superiority of the US itself. I've never lived in any nation where patriotism is that inculcated in people from day one - it's something that I have mixed feelings about as a whole, but it definitely makes it easier to ignore the rest of the world.

And last but not least, the focus of news in the US is almost always local with precious little attention being paid to anything else - even other parts of the USA. Now, this may be a case of giving people what they want, but it certainly doesn't make it particularly easy for anyone who might potentially be interested in what's going on in Europe, Asia or even in Hawaii.

i think it's really funny! living in metro Detroit (15 min away from the border),and knowing some canadians and canadian culture helps

I also live in metro Detroit (probably 30 mins from Windsor border, 45 mins from Sarnia border). I do know the most important thing there is for americans to know about Canada... the legal drinking age is 19! I made very good use of that info many, many moons ago when I actually turned 19.